In Massachusetts now again. Tonight I drove for the first time in days. The train ride home from Baltimore seemed to go on for 17 hours or so. I think it was about 8 hours though. An annoying New York woman with shitty looking sandals and a notebook with hearts on it annoyed me on her cell phone for the first hour of the ride. A couple choice sound bites I heard: �How was your vacation?�, and �I wasn�t invited to the wedding�. I wonder why?

I fell asleep listening to Yes on the train, and then was reenergized with George Jones in Connecticut.

Despite what you may think, ducks, as well as pigeons cannot fly.

The first day of the road trip was a little rough. It was about 105 degrees, 103 with the wind chill factor in the sun, so loading a U-Haul Trailer attached to a little Honda was sweaty, exhausting and ultimately frustrating.

Once we were done and on the way the cats were freaking out in the car, panting and meowing, and not wanting to be in the car. Then, about an hour into driving, the muffler fell off. It was quite enjoyable pulling an extremely hot piece of metal of a car in the sweltering heat. Jodie eventually got it off.

We stayed in a Motel 6 in Little Rock, Arkansas, and I was in a mood similar to what I felt in 1999, which I talk about in the Presley song Art Garfunkel. Anyway, the freezing air-conditioner, and nice bed was a welcome pair for the maiden evening of the trip.

Getting the cats back in the car was a little hard as they started freaking out yet again.

We made it all the way across Arkansas without much with the cats, but then, we hit West Memphis, AR, which is where that film Paradise Lost took place, the West Memphis Three, etc. Rauol would not stop freaking out, so I took another picture of him.

Finally, we made it to Memphis, and the cats were fine. We attempted to see Graceland, I even took a couple of pictures, but we didn�t really have time, energy or that much desire to do it, so we passed, and drove on to Nashville�one of my favorite cities in the country. We stayed in the Opryland area, which is a bit much on the tourist thing, but it was a welcome relief to the dingy Little Rock area we stayed in the night before.

Shoney�s buffet � There was some sort of half breakfast, half Thanksgiving dinner vibe happening in there. I put the following on my plate: bacon, mashed potatoes, ham, macaroni and cheese. Salad. The Coca-Cola was abosfuckinglutely delicious for some reason.

I stayed up late and watched the 70�s thing on VH-1, and then fell asleep to Country Music Television- which we stayed less than a mile from fwiw.

In the morning, it was a bit warm, and of course�

I�ll continue tomorrow. I need to write about the sketchy pierced guy I saw at three consecutive rest areas loitering around the bathrooms in West Virginia. I have no idea how to squeal.

Arkansas at dusk

before & after